
S
tor
INSIDE
From Pit to Pastorate
Charlotte Ishkanian
Jacob Gore was a Protestant pastor in southern Sudan when he was arrested for teach-
ing children Christian songs in an area where Christianity is forbidden. He was tossed
into a deep pit with 71 other condemned men. Food and water were dropped to them,
and the only ones allowed out of the pit were never seen or heard from again.
Gore shared his faith in Jesus with his fellow prisioners, who eagerly clung to it as
their only hope.
After four months Gore was released from the pit and warned never to preach in that
area again. He escaped to an area where he could preach freely, and was assigned to pas-
tor seven churches in a new area. When he arrived he found Adventist lay workers hold-
ing Bible seminars. He wanted to attend, but he did not dare. However, he encouraged
some of his church members to go and report what they were hearing.
Gore noticed some strong differences between what he believed and what the
Adventists taught. He went to visit one of the lay pastors to discuss the Bible. Gore
asked many questions, and accepted the lay worker’s offer of Bible studies. Eagerly he
dug deeper into the Bible.
Gore took his time to sort out what he believed, praying that God would help him
know what was the truth. He realized that he had to follow his conscience. He called his
congregations together for a meeting.
“My children,” he said, “I have discovered that our church does not teach everything
the Bible teaches. We have always worshiped on Sunday, but the Bible clearly states that
God’s true Sabbath has never changed. I have baptized people by sprinkling them with
water, but the Bible says we should baptize by immersion.”
The church members sat stunned as he explained other differences in beliefs. Then he
asked the members to pray and decide what they would do. He returned to his home.
Gore hoped that some of the members would follow him, but the next day the leaders
came to his house and took everything. “You bought this with money we paid you,” they
said as they carried away his furniture and clothes, even his food. In the end only four of
his former members asked to study the Bible with him. All four eventually were baptized.
Gore’s wife, in spite of threats by church members, decided to follow her husband
into the Adventist Church.
Gore found himself without a job. After his baptism, the Adventist Church assigned
him to work with a senior pastor and continue studying the Bible with him. Then he
spent a year holding evangelistic meetings in which 177 were baptized. Today he is a
Gospel Outreach volunteer raising up a church in Morobo, southern Sudan. Already he
has gathered a small congregation of believers, including another Protestant pastor.
“The people of southern Sudan have been forced to move from place to place over
the past 30 or more y
ears.
The
y ha
v
e heard of
Adventists, and they want to know what
Adventists believe. These people need a strong faith to hold on to. I am happy that I have
found the truth, so I can give them the truth.”
Jacob Gore is a gospel evangelist serving in Morobo, southern Sudan. Charlotte Ishkanian
is editor of Mission.
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Pr
oduced by the General Conference Office of Mission Awareness.
email:info@adventistmission.org website:www.adventistmission.org